Stock markets in Asia traded lower on Thursday despite a positive session in Wall Street last night as tech stocks, led by Facebook, plunged after hours.
Thailand’s SET Index opened at 1,667.56 points, decreased 0.19 points or 0.01%.
As of 10:23 local time in Thailand on February 3, 2022, Nikkei dropped 1.11%, ASX 200 slipped 0.34%, IDX Composite fell 0.85% while Kospi jumped 2.01%.
Nasdaq Futures fell 2.19% this morning, pressured by a selloff in tech stocks and led by a 22% plummet from Facebook after hours as the company reported lower than expected earnings in 4Q21.
Asia Wealth Securities (AWS) stated in the Daily Strategy that it expects the SET today to move in a sideways frame in a range of 1,655-1,675 points after gaining more than 33.58 points (+2.1%) over the past five business days. The securities company expects the SET to reach key resistance at 1,670-1675 points.
As for the investment strategy, AWS recommended gradually accumulating stocks with expected growth in 4Q21 earnings, including BEC, BH, TU and SPALI, as well as domestic stocks and stocks based on the economic recovery in the country which are banking, tourism, consumer goods, retail, ICT and transportation for the main investment portfolios. However, the stocks in the group of oil plays that AWS has recommended for speculation in the past must be invested carefully after crude oil price increases by more than 16% in 2022 that it estimates that the crude oil price frame will start to be limited.
Following the ECB and BoE meeting (3 Feb), it is expected that the ECB will continue its policy against the Fed, while the BoE is ready to raise interest rates by 0.25% to 0.50% to reduce the impact of inflation that has increased at an accelerated rate. The U.S. non-farm payrolls report (4 Feb), market consensus is expected to increase 178,000 positions in Jan and the unemployment rate is expected to stabilize at 3.9%
